Parental Involvement

Parents contribute in lots of ways to the life of the school. At Batheaston, we particularly value the role of parents as co-educators. A child's first learning takes place within the home. It is usually you, the parents, who are the child's first teachers, and for most children you also provide the continuous link throughout all the stages of education in your partnership with the school staff. We are extremely proud of how so many parents have become involved in the life of the school in many different ways.

Many parents enjoy helping in the classrooms of their children. Each day, the teachers plan and prepare a whole variety of different activities for the children to work through, and certain of these activities are designed for specific teaching by the member of staff. Other activities might be group investigations, follow-up activities etc. When parents come to help us in the classrooms, they usually join a group of childen who otherwise would not be receiving the substantial adult srpervision for that session.

As a general rule, children will simply achieve more from an activity if there is an adult with them. they might sustain their interest for longer; they might use adults to clarify their tasks, or to help them to socialise more effectively e.g. sharing, taking turns, supporting each other - and almost always, children achieve better by having someone with whom they can share their ideas, demonstrate their ability, and from whom they can receive praise and encouragement.

All children also really benefit from reading aloud to adults, as often as possible, when parents are able to regularly work with individual readers, in school.

Some individual parents who are qualified as teachers also help in specific ways: Special needs support; recorder lessons; group work in the KS2 classes; volunteer reading workshops etc. Parents also work in numerous ways to help around the school: typing,; photocopying; maintaining the library; book making; painting; repair work e.g. guttering; gardening; growing plants; cleaning; making costumes; art work; feeding and taking care of pets at weekends; veterinary care; photography; help with prospectus; video making; nearly new rail; lost property.

All those volunteering to work in any capacity at the school will need to undergo a Criminal Record Bureau Check.  This involves completing a form, available from the office, and you are asked to bring in proof of identity and address (passport/driving licence/birth certificate/utility bill etc.)  The form is then sent in to the CRB for checking against police records – this can take up to a month.  When cleared, a certificate is issued, and we keep a copy of this at the school.  We would also ask all volunteers to work at the school at least once every three months in order to keep this certificate current.